(NSI News Source Info) HAVANA - April 6, 2009: A summit of leaders from across the Americas won't start for almost two weeks. But Fidel Castro is already complaining about its closing statement.
In an article published Sunday by official news media, the former Cuban leader said that visiting Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega had showed him a draft of the agreement the summit leaders are supposed to approve at the end of the April 17-19 summit in Trinidad and Tobago.
It "contains a great number of inadmissible concepts," Castro wrote. 
Cuba's President Raul Castro (L) and his Nicaraguan counterpart Daniel Ortega walk together during a meeting in Havana April 2, 2009. Picture taken April 2, 2009.
Cuba is the only country in the region not invited — an exclusion based on decades of U.S. attempts to isolate the communist government. Castro expressed irritation that the proposed statement does not mention the calls by many Latin American leaders for an end to such boycotts and for better ties between the United States and Cuba.
"Who is now demanding our exclusion? Perhaps they don't understand that times of exclusionary agreements against our people have been left far behind?" Castro wrote, suggesting that Latin American leaders should push harder against the U.S. boycott of Cuba.
"One cannot keep silent in the face of unnecessary and inadmissible concessions," Castro said.
Diplomats usually conclude summit declarations well before heads of state meet to announce them, though leaders can always make last-minute changes.
U.S. attempts to isolate Cuba diplomatically have collapsed in recent decades and Cuba now has warm relations with most major Latin American and Caribbean nations. Ortega and nine other Latin American heads of state have traveled to Cuba since January and most have met with Fidel Castro as well as his younger brother Raul, 77, who took over as president last year when the elder Castro formally stepped aside for health reasons.
President Barack Obama, who will attend the summit, does not support lifting the U.S. embargo altogether, but his administration intends to allow Americans to visit relatives in Cuba and send money to their families in this country.
Some restrictions on family travel and remittances were eased temporarily in legislation Obama signed last month, but lifting the bans entirely would meet a pledge Obama made during the presidential campaign and could be a step toward a new openness with Cuba.
Cuba's President Raul Castro (L) and his Nicaraguan counterpart Daniel Ortega walk together during a meeting in Havana April 2, 2009. Picture taken April 2, 2009.
Cuba is the only country in the region not invited — an exclusion based on decades of U.S. attempts to isolate the communist government. Castro expressed irritation that the proposed statement does not mention the calls by many Latin American leaders for an end to such boycotts and for better ties between the United States and Cuba.
"Who is now demanding our exclusion? Perhaps they don't understand that times of exclusionary agreements against our people have been left far behind?" Castro wrote, suggesting that Latin American leaders should push harder against the U.S. boycott of Cuba.
"One cannot keep silent in the face of unnecessary and inadmissible concessions," Castro said.
Diplomats usually conclude summit declarations well before heads of state meet to announce them, though leaders can always make last-minute changes.
U.S. attempts to isolate Cuba diplomatically have collapsed in recent decades and Cuba now has warm relations with most major Latin American and Caribbean nations. Ortega and nine other Latin American heads of state have traveled to Cuba since January and most have met with Fidel Castro as well as his younger brother Raul, 77, who took over as president last year when the elder Castro formally stepped aside for health reasons.
President Barack Obama, who will attend the summit, does not support lifting the U.S. embargo altogether, but his administration intends to allow Americans to visit relatives in Cuba and send money to their families in this country.
Some restrictions on family travel and remittances were eased temporarily in legislation Obama signed last month, but lifting the bans entirely would meet a pledge Obama made during the presidential campaign and could be a step toward a new openness with Cuba.
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